CALIBRATION OF TIP POSITION DURING MANEUVERS OF SPACE-ROBOTIC SYSTEMS

The methodology for the calibration of tip position error caused by th e system mass center offset during maneuvers of a flexible multi-link manipulator as part of a space-based robotic system has been presented in this paper. The system considered here is a two-dimensional model which consists of one main flexible beam plus a two-link flexible arm with a payload at one end and a rigid arm with an antenna at the other end. Since the robotic system is considered to be in space, the posit ion of the mass center of the system with respect to the center of the main structure will be varied during the system operation. The mass c enter offset directly affects the tip position accuracy of the robotic arm in inertial space during system maneuvers. The effective method e stablished here is to regulate the joint angles of the two-link robot manipulator during the system operations, so that the effect of the sy stem mass center shift on the manipulator tip position will be reduced . The numerical simulations show that this calibrating method is succe ssful in some certain cases.